As someone who has grown up in and around the shrimping business let me say that smaller shrimp are much, much tastier than the larger sizes. The Tiger shrimp in particular are very tough. Nowhere near as tasty and sweet to eat the 35 - 50 count (per lb) Mayport or Frenandina shrimp. This particular invasive species is a bad one. To the smaller shrimp they feed on and the humans that make their livilihood harvesting and fishing them they are a disaster. Only landlocks without clue or reference could ever think otherwise.

Surfed wrote:As someone who has grown up in and around the shrimping business let me say that smaller shrimp are much, much tastier than the larger sizes.

As someone who has eaten a lot of tiger shrimp, I must say that on my palate they do taste differently from shrimp native to American waters, but whether the differences amounts to better (let alone "much, much better") is strictly a matter of taste, non gustibus... and all that. As for toughness, being larger tigers are naturally more toothsome for that reason. Whether they are preferable for culinary purposes is also a matter of taste, though to me quantity has a quality all its own.

However, as a matter of good stewardship of our natural resources some effort should be made to ameliorate whatever deleterious effects such an invasive species may work. The Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy and similar nannies have long warned us that all manner of plant and animal life are on the bleeding edge of extinction due to our thoughtless exploitation of Gaea and her retinue of nymphs. I say we put their theories to the test. I say we try to eat the tiger shrimp onto the Endangered Species List.

"Sustainable consumption: In 2010, Greenpeace added Penaeus monodon to its seafood red list – "a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries".[6] The reasons given by Greenpeace were "destruction of vast areas of mangroves in several countries, over-fishing of juvenile shrimp from the wild to supply farms, and significant human rights abuses".[6]"

There is an ongoing fetish that any non-native species must be "bad!!" for the environment. All sorts of stuff that came into our environment has been deemed "good!" for so long we forget they are foreign import species:Honeybees.Brown trout.Wild Horsies!!Tumbleweeds.Most fruiting trees in cultivation or in the wild.Green crabsCoho and striped bass in our lakes.

Some are "mixed blessing" species like grass carp, kudzu, wild boar.

I suspect the tiger shrimp will be a mixed blessing species. Some shrimpers may "curse them" if they net a couple hundred pounds of colossals...but I doubt any of those cursing shrimpers will toss them back overboard.

Tiger shrimp "meat is savory and tender when cooked in the shell and tastes similar to a lobster tail while being surprisingly less tough. In addition, the texture of Tiger Shrimp is much more cohesive and solid. Thus, the shrimp doesn’t breakdown or fall apart into a soft paste when eaten which is something I always disliked in other shrimp."

Evidently your years growing up in and around the shrimping industry has done nothing for your objectivity. Perhaps you should spend a few more until you can speak of your maturation in the perfect tense.

Thanks for the recipe at Munchonme. It strongly reminds me of a dish that was a staple of mine as an undergrad. Near my dorm was a Thai restaurant which served an excellent dish called Assam Shrimp, why so named is a puzzle since Assam is a province of India and landlocked. Anyway, Assam Shrimp is prepared with red curry and is served with a bowl of steamed rice on the side -- the idea is to season the rice with the shrimp and its sauce at the table, rather than cook everything together like a gumbo. It was delicious. I ate it for lunch twice or more often every week and never grew tired if it. The prawns were large and meaty; perhaps they were tigers. Ramen Tiger Shrimp sounds like it would be a dead on clone if red curry substituted for the garlic. I'll try it tomorrow.

Some of the nastier invading species include rabbits (Australia), the zebra mussel, the brown tree snake (nearly wiped out the bird population on Guam), Chinese mitten crab, Emerald Ash Borer, European gypsy moth, and Northern Snakehead.

For all the speculation of economic opportunity, one should also reflect on the effect of native species, as well as the overall ecological balance.

I'm wondering if the example of a foreign species coming in and wiping out the natives is the answer to the question "Why are we so hostile to non-natives?"

If I were a shrimp now to be eaten, I might agree. On the other hand, I suppose if I were someone who was gong to consume or otherwise use the giant shrimp that sucks the life out of the other shrimp, I might think differently. I think there is a good parallel there. Thanks, Ann!

Asian carp out-compete native fish for food and starve them out (or eat them). They also have an unnerving habit of reacting to power boats by jumping up out of the river to the point that you can get injured. The government is trying to keep them from moving from the Des Plaines River and into the Chicago River and then into Lake Michigan, which would be viewed as a disaster for the fishery there.

OTOH - China's rivers are all pretty much an ecological pollution disaster. Illinois' rivers are much, much cleaner. Enterprising Illinois fishermen are catching the Asian Carp and shipping them to China. They taste a lot better than the Chinese Asian Carp because of our cleaner water and they're making money!

I'd agree, but have you ever tasted fresh Gulf shrimp in LA or FL? It has a fresh, crisp snap that's far and away better than all that imported shrimp. And that shrimp which falls apart into a soft paste... it's just not fresh.